StartUp (2016) s01e07 Episode Script

Valuation

Nick: Oh, man, we
have a small problem.
Word?
This hacker guy, he took all of it.
That Blush dude money. All that money.
- Uggh!
- Committed multiple felonies.
- We got hacked.
- But you didn't report it.
Someone had to know, someone
who'd been following the money.
Hey, that's hood money, dawg.
That money belonged to me.
If they don't get 300
from me, they're coming for you.
We have a meeting
with Alex Bell on Tuesday.
We take our 20 G's,
make 'em think they're about
to be part of something cutting edge.
- Then ask them to double down.
- It's actually a Ponzi scheme.
I'm sure my lawyers
can sort all this out.
- Shit.
- Where you going, blood?
I have an idea.
Ready for this ass-whuppin' boy? Huh?
Oh, yeah. Oh, you are. Okay.
What you doin'? What you
doin'? Get off, man.
Ooh, too big for you.
Too big for you, look at you.
Ahh! Whoo!
Like father, like son, huh?
'Cause your daddy can't
ball for shit. Now watch this.
Come on, little nigga,
I own these courts.
Me, not you, me.
I own these courts, boy!
Yeah.
Oh, you think
you You think you tough?
Come on, son.
Come on, little nigga, you
don't own these courts.
I own these courts, me!
Ah!
Like father, like son, boy!
Huh?
Oh, yeah.
That's called a rejection, son.
You got rejected.
Here you go. I'm right here.
What's up with it?
Come on, little nigga.
You ready?
Your girl gonna let you in them drawers,
you holding a ball like that?
Lil' Touie?
What's up with all that shit
you was talkin', huh?
Huh? What's up with all
that shit you was talkin', huh?
Whoo!
Yeah, lookie here, lookie here.
Hey, y'all see that?
Y'all see that?
This young nigga got heart right here.
Feel me? You a'ight?
I'm straight.
Ain't seen your daddy
around much lately.
He off doin' his own thing now, or what?
You know, just what it is.
Just how he do, huh?
I know you seen him
trippin', though, ain't that right?
You know, but I ain't like that.
- Jey
- Jey: Oh, you ain't?
Nah, I'm straight, dawg.
A'ight, good.
'Cause he trippin' if he believe
all that Tintin shit he been spittin'.
Shit goin' off around here soon.
Them Towners, they
gonna come back at us, dawg.
And shit with Lib City ain't gonna
stay quiet too much longer.
You feel me?
I feel you.
You're gonna have to
make a choice, little homey.
You gonna go down with
your daddy's ship
or you gonna ride high with
me, O, and the rest?
You gonna be great, man.
You gonna own these streets.
You.
You and O
y'all gonna be kings, man.
Kings, dawg. Feel me?
I feel you.
Out, out.
Get your game on, lil' nigga.
(theme music playing)
(engine stops)
(vehicle approaching)
- Shit.
- (car doors open, close)
- Uh, excuse me, Mr. Bell. Hi.
- Sorry, now is not a good time.
Yeah. You guys going up to
RadCoin, meeting Maya Hibert?
Yeah.
Yeah. You don't know
me, although you should,
so I'm gonna give you one of these.
What you're about to hear
up there is bullshit.
RadCoin is bullshit.
It's a gimmick.
This right here is the real deal.
It's the future of currency, but
I'll let you decide for yourself.
My number's on the back.
Maya, she can't stand
in this game alone,
I hope you know that.
- Woman: Thanks.
Okay.
- Woman: Alex.
- Alex: Yeah.
- Hey, Pauly.
- Ah, my man.
- The usual?
- Please.
Oh, shit.
Listen, I'm sorry. Gotta be that guy.
Pauly: Ha ha, no problem, Phil.
Charge me the $2 fee.
Pauly: No worries, my man. I got you.
- (device beeps)
- Whoops. This one says declined.
What? Uh
All right, here, here. Try this?
- Okay.
- Thanks.
(device beeps)
Pauly: Machine's had
a mind of its own lately.
No worry. Just take this one on me.
Rask: No, Pauly,
you don't have to do that.
It's my pleasure.
I know you'll be back.
Thanks.
Hector.
Man: Agent Rask.
Rask: Yeah.
Special Agent Kossaras.
- Special Agent Guerra, Missing Persons.
- Hi.
We were just upstairs chatting
with your colleagues.
Right.
We're investigating the disappearance
of Agent Pierce.
Thought you might be
able to help us out.
Agent Pierce? Is this is this a joke?
I saw her the other day.
Kossaras: Yesterday, the other day?
Rask: No, not yesterday. It
was, um, Tuesday, I think.
It's been over 48 hours since
anyone's heard from her.
She missed two check-ins with HQ.
- What?
- Kossaras: Were you working
any investigations that may have
placed her in harm's way?
Guerra: Someone she was tailing,
someone she rubbed wrong?
Not that I can you don't
think it's anything serious, do you?
Kossaras: We're exploring
every possible angle.
Guerra: What about the Andy Talman case?
There was a link to the
LH7 gang there, was there not?
- A Ronald Dacey?
- Yeah, somewhat, somewhat,
but I don't think they would ever, uh
Again, exploring every angle here.
Guerra: As one of our own, we
have to be as aggressive as possible.
Of course, yeah. If there's
anything I can do, please, let me know.
All right. We'll be in touch. Thank you.
- Kossaras: See you around.
- Rask: Yeah.
Yeah.
(cracks knuckles)
- Megan: Can you see my cards?
- Nick: No.
(Megan giggles)
- Thanks.
- 10 yours? Do you want that?
Megan: Yeah. Thank you.
(phone rings, vibrating)
Hello, this is Izzy.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Uh f can can you text me that?
All right, uh, thank you.
We're in.
- Ronald: Who that?
- Alex Bell.
That was him?
- Really?
- Yes.
- When?
- Tomorrow.
- That's great!
- Megan: Woo-hoo!
He said to bring our bathing suits.
She. His assistant.
- Nick: Why?
- I don't know.
Who is Alex?
Megan, shut up.
Yo.
Izzy: Yo. You didn't
bring your swimsuit?
- Are you serious about that?
- Izzy: Yeah.
He said bring 'em. I brought mine.
You bring yours?
I sure did, yeah. I got
an extra one in the trunk.
Pssh. I ain't puttin' my
shit in the same spot as your shit.
- Izzy: Oh, my God.
- Nick: You brought a tank top, though?
Yo, Ronald, seriously.
This guy's the real deal. Like
he's the new Elon Musk.
If the man says, "Bring
a bathing suit"
Shit.
What is wrong with my
hotspot? You have Wi-Fi in here?
Probably.
- Izzy: Got it.
- Ronald: Damn.
Izzy: Look at this.
He has stakes in some of
the biggest tech companies
out there right now. The
hypersonic scramjet thing.
Get you from London to Sydney
in like two hours.
If the man says, "Let's
go swimming," we go swimming.
Hey, look, he's either buying
what the hell we selling or he ain't.
It's all good, but I ain't
kissin' nobody's ass.
- Man, you're stubborn.
- (engine starts)
Izzy: Why you got
to be so complicated?
Nick: Okay, buckle up.
(R&B music plays)
- Izzy: I hate pitching.
- Ronald: You'll be all right.
- You're really good at it.
- It makes me wanna puke.
You're passionate, that's
all that matters.
Why can't you do the whole thing?
Because he doesn't
want to hear from me.
You're the brilliant mind,
you're the creator.
And I sound like a damn fool.
- Hey, I'm here, aren't I?
- Yeah.
I called you for a
reason. Remember that.
- All right.
- Just take this.
- Alex: GenCoin!
- Hey.
- Hi!
- Hey, you guys, come on in.
- Nick Talman.
- Good to meet you, man.
- Good to meet you.
- Ronald. Sup?
- Alex: Pleasure. How's it going?
- Ronald: All good.
Yeah. Oh, well, welcome,
welcome, welcome.
And we met earlier. Isabelle, right?
- Yeah, you you can call me Izzy.
- Oh. Izzy, cool.
I'm sorry I ambushed you earlier.
Oh, no. No, no, no.
It'll make a good story someday.
Yeah, I submitted to
you guys three times before.
Eh I get so many things
on my desk. You know how it is.
- Yeah, for sure.
- Nick: I can imagine.
Yeah, that's why I
figured this was the best way.
Persistence, I dig it.
Hey, and, lo and behold,
it turns out I've
already heard about you.
Nico Wexler. Remember him from Stanford?
Ah, Nico
Alex: He remembers you.
He works for me now.
Told me all about you.
Said you were like scary smart.
Nick: Sounds right. (chuckles)
Anyway good, you brought your suits.
- All: Yeah.
- Alex: Good.
Ronald: Yeah. Why we do that?
Whoo!
Alex: That's nice.
- Ronald, come on.
- Come on!
Ronald: I'm good.
Alex: It's okay.
- So, uh, GenCoin
- Nick: Yes.
- Super-cool sounding.
- Nick: Thank you.
Izzy, if you wanna just sort of
Yes, uh, thank you.
So, um, did you know, in Saudi Arabia,
women aren't allowed to
open a bank account?
Alex: Hey, Vera.
Sorry, Isabelle, one second.
Guys, this is Vera.
She runs my life.
Pleasure.
Alex: Part-time confidante,
full-time ball and chain.
Vera: Uh-huh.
Alex: Ooh, yes.
- Alex: Gonna have some?
- Vera: No.
Alex: You're no fun, Vera.
Vera: Kenji asked if you could
join him for that
conference call in a few minutes.
Alex: Tell him to wait for me.
And Ronald.
Nah, I'm straight.
All right.
- Cheers.
- Cheers.
- (laughter)
- Good reach.
Mm! Yeah.
Anyway, you were saying? Saudi Arabia.
Yeah. There' so many
people out there are hurting.
Half of these people don't even
have access to personal banking.
Alex: I totally get it.
You know, new currency based in
a self-evolving source code.
Human-proof, future-proof.
- If your code works
- It works.
- then it's all pretty genius.
- Yeah, it definitely works.
I had it audited
myself before I signed her.
Yeah, I'm sure it does.
And unlike RadCoin, what
you're proposing is,
- "There is a problem out there"
- Izzy: Mm-hmm.
"and GenCoin is the solution."
That's good.
That is essential for a startup.
But for me
there's one other intangible component.
Why?
Why what?
Why GenCoin?
Well, I mean, like I
was trying to tell you
About how it can give Third
World communities access to banking,
how it can give oppressed nations
the same rights we have?
Yeah, sure, heard it a million times.
BitCoin, all those other peer-to-peers,
they're ready to die
on that hill, but why?
It ain't just that.
GenCoin means currency without
banks, corporations.
- Say you some poor immigrant
- Alex: Sure, but why you?
Why you, Izzy?
Why you, Nick?
Why do each of you care about GenCoin?
Besides the altruism.
Come on, why?
Why each of you?
Vera: Alex.
- Kenji has to fly out soon.
- Okay, yeah. sure.
So, let's do this.
Vera and I will sign an NDA.
Vera, you get Nico to look
over her code tonight.
I'll have him sign an NDA too.
And let's set something up.
Tomorrow, if possible.
I'd love to come by the office,
see where it all began.
- Great. That'd be great.
- Yeah.
Alex: But more than anything,
I need you to be able to
answer that question.
You know what? I invest in a company,
I'm not investing in the idea
or the infrastructure.
I am investing in the people,
the intangibles you
can't really put a price on.
That's how you stay ahead in tech.
Sound good?
Yeah. Very much.
Alex: See you tomorrow.
Ronald: Homeboy smart.
He knows how he gonna market the shit.
He already know how he
gonna monetize the shit.
He knew that shit
before we came to his house
like some chumps
holding swimming trunks.
He wants to know why you.
He wants to know your personal story.
Nick: Well, I can tell him
about microfinancing and NGOs.
I can't imagine he wants to hear that.
He definitely doesn't.
I mean, you guys don't wanna hear
that. Try and tell you guys
Izzy: I don't.
It's a trick
question. He's fucking with us.
- We should push.
- Can't do that.
No, we can't do
that? What should we do?
Just continue eating
Chinese food and not do nothing?
Ronald: We can't push.
I'm past due with Jey-Jey.
Blush's lawyers gonna
get off that elevator
swinging their dicks at us.
We need that cash yesterday.
I hear Mexico's nice.
(doorbell rings)
(door buzzes)
(keyboard clicking)
Hello, Phil.
You are early.
Departure date today, yes?
- Yeah.
- Okay.
Originally, we have
you going into Mexico City,
but things down there
are a little tense right now,
so a new plan.
We get you to Paris.
You are Phil Rask, a passenger to Paris.
Uh, the most obvious destination.
In Paris, you'll be
traveling by train to Barcelona.
Still you, still Phil Rask.
A car will meet you at Barcelona Sants
and take you a few hours
out of the country.
This is where you'll meet our pilot.
His name is not necessary,
but know he's very well trained.
Worked for the States
during the Contra war.
He's a good man. I love this guy.
Before you take off,
you've gotta burn your passport.
All right. Phil Rask will disappear,
and you will land in Ireland as, uh
Vincent Vick.
That's a terrible name.
Man: Apologies. That's what we got.
Uh, then in Ireland,
when you're ready, you will book
a ferry ticket to the Faroe Islands.
Then you, Vincent Vick, will be home.
(keyboard clicking)
So
(sighs)
Payment method?
Yeah, we can, uh (clears throat)
make a direct wire.
It's cleared.
(mutters)
Okeydokey.
(breathes deeply)
These accounts are empty.
Uh
Which what
accounts are you looking at?
- There's only one on here.
- Let me see.
Okay. Gimme Gimme it. Gimme it.
Can you
open the door?
Man: Oh, yeah.
(door buzzes)
(door slams)
(alarm beeping)
Hey, Ronnie.
What they do?
Yeah, didn't want it to be this way.
Just how I do, though.
Jey-Jey wanna see you in the room.
Hm.
Let's go.
- Pop? Wait. What's going on?
- I'll be right back.
Oskar: It's all good, little man.
Jey just got some business.
(dog barking)
(gate rattling)
(rattling continues)
Come on, open up!
Open up! I'm not kidding here!
Vadik: Settle down, my friend.
Please. I'm coming.
Yeah, I'll settle down. Open the door!
Z-So, let me guess,
uh change of mind?
Did he come back
here? Daewon, where is he?
Okay, my friend.
Do you have warrant?
No?
Bye-bye.
(cracks knuckles)
Excuse me, excuse me! Excuse
I I can help you.
(sports commentary on TV)
(laughter)
(man chuckles)
- (gun cocks)
- Rask: Hi, friends.
(women screaming)
- Vadik: Take it easy!
- Let's try this
Take it easy!
Let's try this again! Hmm?
Let's try this again!
Where's Daewon? Where's Daewon?
They sent him to Moscow.
They gave him asylum.
He's gone, okay? He's gone.
And you'll never find him.
(woman whimpering)
(woman gasps)
Man: No, don't.
- Touie: What they gonna do, huh?
- Oskar: It's cool, little man, chill. Chill.
Jey's just doin' what need to be done.
- Jey
- Jey: Shit.
This room, huh?
This room, right?
We took over all of Little
Haiti from this damn room right here.
All of Little Haiti.
Seem like lately
all I been askin' myself
where'd Big Man Ronnie go?
Hmm?
What happened to him?
You know?
Me and you, right?
Huh?
We started this whole damn thing, dawg.
We came up, nigga.
Came up.
(mutters) 305.
LH7's old boys.
Me and you, boy.
Now, with you sittin' here
shit, nigga, really I
don't even recognize you, dawg.
It's crazy how the past flip things
on you like that, right?
I told you gimme that money.
I told you gimme that money.
Where the bread at? Where the money at?
You gonna do what you gonna do, Jey.
But the money ain't
gonna come no sooner,
so you might as well get
this shit done with.
- Jey
- Jey: Hmm.
You on some shit, huh, nigga?
You really on some
shit. That's my money, dawg!
It ain't our money. It ain't ours, dawg.
- That's mine.
- Go ahead and kill me, Jey.
Kill me. You ain't gonna
get that money if you do.
Nigga, give me that flame.
Who wanna go first?
Huh?
Nah, nah, nah, you straight. You good.
Let's see what these other
fools talkin' about.
Come on, now, open season.
Cook your own meat, dawg.
Let's charbroil this fool.
You about it? You about it?
Cook your own meat.
Huh?
Don't I take care of y'all?
Don't I take care of y'all niggas?
You goddamn right I do!
Wasn't for me, y'all
be out there on the 95
holdin' some punk-ass sign
beggin' for change!
But look where you at, nigga!
Look where you at!
I said look where you at!
It's 'cause of me!
Oh, it's like that, huh?
It's like that.
Huh? Y'all wanna do me like that?
Bunch of pussies!
Bitch! Nigga!
A'ight. We're gonna
do it like that then.
We gonna do it like that.
Just remember, you remember this:
You make any money, you bring
that shit back to me!
'Cause that's my money!
I break you off, nigga! I break you off!
You remember this.
Without me, there ain't nothin'!
(speaks French)
I started that.
That don't exist without me.
(speaks French)
That don't exist without me.
(punching)
(gate squeaking)
Wait. Damn, Megan. That's
all you could find?
Well, they were on sale,
and you didn't give me any money.
This meeting
Go go get something nice,
some cheese and fruit.
Oh, this card was
declined last time, remember?
- I'll pay you back. Go.
- Okay.
- Can you give her your credit card?
- Why?
To get some cheese, fruit, and shit.
He's gonna be here in five minutes.
All right? We don't wanna
seem desperate. It's fine.
- Have you seen Ronald?
- No.
- No?
- Uh-uh.
I'll just call the guy.
He's here.
- Nick: Who?
- Ronald?
Alex. He's downstairs.
Nick: Um, okay. Just
greet him, please, and tell
him we'll be ready in three.
- Minutes.
- Thank you.
No, hours.
- Nick: Hey.
- Yeah?
Listen, just remember, we're
all here because of you.
I'm here because of you, your vision.
Not your code, your vision. Okay?
- Okay.
- Great. Okay.
Okay. (chuckles)
Let
- (chuckles)
- Good.
Nick: Put on your game face.
Jesus Christ. Take
these fuckin' donuts with you.
Donuts.
Where the fuck is the chalkboard?
All right, that's good, baby. Hey.
I gotta go.
- Where are you going?
- Gotta go to work.
- For Jey? After all that?
- GenCoin.
- Tamara: GenCoin?
- Ronald: Mm-hmm.
Tamara: You trippin'. Ronald!
Ronald: Baby, it's the biggest
investor we can get.
We land this, all our problem over.
Yeah, but how you
gonna go in there lookin' all
Baby, I done got left
out of this once before.
I ain't gonna let
that shit happen again.
Ronnie, you look
like you just stepped out
of a damn boxing ring.
I'm gonna look better
wearing this, though.
(scoffs, chuckles)
- Ain't that right?
- All right, nigga.
- It's very fresh, you know.
- Nick: It's raw, it's malleable.
- (Alex laughs) Yeah. Exactly.
- Nick: Yeah. Thank you, Megan.
- Elegant.
- Nick: Elegant, yeah.
- Oh!
- Nick: Okay, Megan.
(mugs clattering)
- Thank you. You guys just move in?
- Nick: Yeah. Yeah, we sure did.
We have the ping-pong set up, so that
was the first order of business.
- Mm-hmm.
- But it's coming together fast.
- Yeah, it's coming together.
- Alex: And you guys remember Vera?
- Yeah.
- Of course I do. Good to see you.
Good to see you with your clothes on.
(awkward laugh)
I'm an exhibitionist.
Hey, what can I say?
Alex: This is Nico, our lead engineer.
- I think you guys know each other?
- Izzy: Yeah.
- Nico: It's been a while.
- Stanford.
Some kind of an alumni
reunion happening.
Izzy: Yeah, class of
- never graduated.
- Oh, right, yeah.
Well, you know, Nico is
the one that audited your code.
Oh, hmm.
It's not weird?
Oh, no, no, it was very impressive,
Izzy, it really was.
Thank you.
He called me at
literally 6:00 a.m., and he was like,
"It's even better than she said it was!"
- I did.
- Oh, Arnold Schwarzenegger voice?
- "Get to the chopper!"
- Mm-hmm. Exactly.
Thank you.
Alex: Uh, yeah.
So, where Where is Ronald?
Oh, he's he was at
a meeting in Deerfield Beach,
and I guess he really
wanted to take them out to lunch.
I suppose it's going real well, so
we said we'd hold down the fort.
He'll make it, or maybe not,
but I think we got it.
Nick: We can approximate his world view.
Cool, so
yeah, uh, GenCoin.
Nick: Yes.
Alex: Have you given any
more thought to my question?
- Sure have.
- Izzy: The big "Why?"
- Yeah, sure have.
- Izzy: Yeah.
- Yeah, I think we both have.
- Alex: Uh-huh.
And, Izzy, why don't you go first?
Yeah, I'll take it away.
Uh, you know, we both
have our own reasons.
I think that's what GenCoin's all about,
people anywhere in the world,
any class, any color, you know,
having a fair chance at accessing money.
I think we're just leveling the
playing field for everyone.
For me, it's more about
what my mom and dad went through.
Uh
when I was a child, they
were opening a Cuban restaurant.
I mean, my mom's a crazy good cook.
People all over the neighborhood,
they would beg her to
come over for dinner.
So she figured,
"Well, hey, why not start charging
and make it a business?"
Hmm. I mean, I love me some
home-cooked Cuban food.
Izzy: Oh, you try her food.
You'd wanna kiss her.
- Wow.
- She's
She's 60, but she's hot.
She's the hot moms.
Alex: Okay, yeah.
No, um
here's what's up, though. Um
Being Cuban immigrants,
they had no credit,
so they borrowed money from
some people that they shouldn't have.
They didn't have money to pay them back.
They sold the
restaurant to the highest bidder
and my parents have been in
debt to them ever since.
My dad wears a neon vest,
works at the docks now,
like a chump, trying to keep square.
I guess the point I'm
trying to make is that
if GenCoin would have been around,
none of this would happen.
He could have gotten a loan directly.
And no corporation or
bank is gonna tell them
what to do with that money.
GenCoin takes less
than a 1% interest rate
which is unnoticeable.
And my parents would've
still had that restaurant
and they would've still been
in that kitchen cooking.
- Interesting.
- Izzy: Mmm.
A nice story.
Alex: Nick, uh, what about you?
Yeah, um, well, for me, uh
- Izzy: Your "big why," Nick.
- Nick: Actually, here's Ronald.
(sighs)
I'm sorry, uh
I just got tied up
with some other business.
That's, uh
That's okay. We were just
Izzy was just
We were hearing her
answer to Alex's big question.
Ronald: Oh, yeah, the "why," right?
The big why.
She tell you about her folk's diner
and the Cuban mob and all that?
She tell you that?
- Alex: Yeah.
- Yeah.
Did Nick tell you
about his shady old man
laundering money to drug cartels
for the past century?
- Nick: No, no, we didn't get into that.
- (Ronald laughing)
- Ronald: Y'all didn't get into that?
- Nick: No.
Ronald: How startin' GenCoin's
gonna make him feel better
about what his daddy
done did? (chuckles)
No?
Why is everybody so quiet?
Is it 'cause of this?
(faint chuckle)
Ronald: Or this?
Check this out. See that?
This the business that
had me tied down
to a goddamn chair
with barbed wire
and then getting worked over.
Do you know why?
'Cause I took all the money
that I had been trusted with
My entire hood's stash
and I gave it to this
little girl sitting right here.
Izzy Morales.
That's how much I believe in GenCoin.
Where you from, Alex?
- Alex: Uh, Greenwich.
- Ronald: Greenwich.
- Connecticut.
- Ronald: Damn, that's quiet. Safe.
Yeah.
Most of the folks in your world
building the software that's
gonna shape our lives,
most of those people, such as yourself,
y'all grew up in a bubble,
ain't that right?
You're not wrong.
And now you still in a bubble.
Same shit, different path.
Right?
GenCoin.
For the people, by the people.
You see what I'm sayin'?
Anybody who's living in the streets,
anybody who knows what's going down
in the streets here in Miami,
or some messed-up village in Syria,
or anywhere across the world
where folks is turning their
back on other folks,
you got that and you
got this girl's code.
You got supply,
and you have the demand.
You have the problem, and
you have the solution.
You have the currency of the future.
(gasps)
Wow.
That is why.
(chuckles)
You scared the shit out of me.
(chuckles)
That's GenCoin.
Don't eat that. We're
gonna go to dinner.
- You guys hungry?
- Nick: Yeah.
- Alex: Yeah.
- Yeah. Let's do it.
(rock music playing)
Alex: Okay. That answers that.